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overnment officials attending the third Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit (APRS-III) in Yogyakarta have highlighted the importance of a close partnership between the government, society and economic players to conserve tropical rainforests, which play a huge role in preventing climate change.

“We can formulate national policies [in each country] to reduce the disappearance of tropical rainforests while at the same time, we are continuously striving to support our economic growth,” Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar told journalists after the opening ceremony of APRS-III on Monday.

Danish Ambassador to Indonesia Rasmus Abildgaard Kristensen, Norwegian Ambassador to Indonesia Vegard Kaale and several government officials from Brunei Darussalam, Fiji and the Philippines attended the two-day summit titled “Protecting Forests and People, Supporting Economic Growth”.

Ninety-three forest experts and 900 participants, 200 of whom are from 35 different countries, are attending the meeting that is jointly held under a collaboration between the Indonesian and Australian governments and supported by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

Siti said the meeting was aimed at rehabilitating degraded forests and land as part of the commitment to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and Enhancing Forest Carbon Stocks (REDD+).

This commitment also honors the Paris Agreement, an international agreement on climate change that aims to help keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, the minister added.

In her remarks, Siti said that in the Asia Pacific, 740,000 hectares of tropical forests that could have direct and indirect benefits for around 550 million people.

“If we look at the sustainable development goals [SDGs], forests play important roles in their achievement, such as in climate change, food, energy, health, job opportunities, industry, sustainable cities and so on,” the minister said.

Siti further said it was unlikely that all forest-related aspects could be fully discussed in the two-day meeting. Seven topics that will be discussed at the summit are forest and Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), restoration and sustainable manageable peatland, mangrove and blue carbon, community forest, ecotourism and biodiversity conservation, production forest as well as forest finance and trade.

Siti said countries in Asia Pacific had placed forests as their most important priority for reducing carbon emissions.

“What we need to do is to identify the most significant role of forests in the NDC. We have to do the best to undertake the necessary measurement,” she said.

In this context, the minister said Indonesia had striven to reduce fires in peatlands.
Moreover, she added, Indonesia had been successful in implementing the timber legality assurance system (SVLK), a mechanism acknowledged by the European Union, to maintain forest sustainability.

Australian Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said the high-level meeting was part of the Asia Pacific Rainforest Partnership, which was initiated by the Australian government to build a dialogue among government, research, community and private sector leaders to fight against deforestation and forest degradation in the region.

“Building on the success of the first Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit held in 2014 in Sydney and the second held in 2016 in Brunei, the summit will provide a platform for collaboration and focus on helping countries in the region to achieve their Paris Agreement Commitments,” Frydenberg said.

At the summit, Frydenberg is set to also meet with representatives from the government, researchers, communities and the private sector to discuss and promote actions on the sustainable management of forests.

He underlined that rainforest conservation was a critical and practical step that countries could take to improve environment resilience and mitigate the effects of climate change.

“At the global level, we know that tropical forests store 25 percent of the world’s carbon, and the Asia-Pacific region has some of the most significant tracts of rainforest in the world. About one billion tons of CO2 is released each year in our region as a result of deforestation and land degradation,” Frydenberg said.

On Sunday, CIFOR visited the Wono Lestari people’s forest management unit in Sendangsari village in Bantul, Yogyakarta. The people’s forest group, which has 3,500 members and manages 959 ha of forests in a sustainable way, has received an SVLK certificate and been acknowledged for its work that has helped to reduce carbon.

UMHR Wono Lestari secretary Zuchri Saren Satrio said the mandatory review for its SVLK certificate once every two years posed a burden to members of its group because it cost around Rp 20 million (US$1,433).

“This obligation is very heavy for us. It would be better if the government could provide help,” he said.